Toll Road Decision Delayed; Newport Beach Freezes Over

Okay, Newport's fine, but there must be Satanic snowballs somewhere. Today, the Transportation Corridor Agencies announced a 30-day delay on their choice of alignments for the Foothill-South toll road extension. The TCA board voted 12-3 for the delay mere hours after its staff received a letter from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's "top resources and transportation advisors," according to the San Diego Union Tribune. Secretary of the California Resources Agency Mike Chrisman and Secretary of the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency Sunne Wright McPeak co-signed the letter, requesting "additional time for the administration to review comments and concerns" raised by state departments, among others. One such concern is, no doubt, the opinion of Attorney General Bill Lockyer that the State Parks and Recreation Commission has a "pretty solid case" against the TCA. Then again, California Senate Majority leader Dick Ackerman (R-Tustin) has threatened to oppose any effort to stop the toll road. He must be destroyed. Then there are those toll-road sycophants who do a fairly decent job of destroying themselves, such as TCA board member and Lake Forest Mayor Peter Herzog, who told KNBC/Channel 4, "This is a road in dire need of being built. The governor said he wants things to be built." This latest twist should only come as a surprise to those who neglected to read "The Year In the 241, The Year in Doing Nothing," Dec. 29 2005.